Of Maine Coons and Promotions
by AwkwardNerd001
Summary: Arthur stared at his cat, who was pawing a rubber hamburger toy around enthusiastically. "You're a strange cat," he muttered to himself. The Englishman returned to his reading, almost being sucked back into the world of heroes, dragons, and damsels in distress, when, with a jolt, he realized something; he didn't own a cat. Cover art is not owned by me and neither is Hetalia.


**Summary: Arthur stared at his cat, who was pawing a rubber hamburger toy around enthusiastically. "You're a strange cat," he muttered to himself. The Englishman returned to his reading, almost being sucked back into the world of heroes, dragons, and damsels in distress, when, with a jolt, he realized something; he didn't own a cat.**

Arthur fell onto the dark red couch, filled with exhaustion from a hard day's work of editing papers and dealing with temperamental clients. The weather outside seemed to match his mood, the cold rain dragging in its descent from the heavens and half-heartedly splattering to the ground. Then again, the rain in London always seemed to coincide with how the native felt at the time; his younger brother, Peter, used to always joke about how Arthur was connected to the land itself (though in a far less eloquent way and with one or five insults thrown in here and there).

The blonde haired man heaved a sigh and stretched, his lean muscles welcoming the action gratefully. "Why can't I have a least _one _normal patron that doesn't have a fit every time I correct their mistake?" he asked himself. Unleashing another sigh, Arthur reached over to the small, circular table next to the couch and picked up the book he had abandoned that morning. It was quickly opened to the right page (somewhere in the middle area) and he immersed himself in his reading.

_BUMP!_

"Mrrow!"

Tired green eyes shifted to the cat two yards from him. It was a Maine Coon, a chubby one at that, and very obviously a boy judging from its face and coloring. Arthur stared at his cat, who was pawing a rubber hamburger toy around enthusiastically. "You're a strange cat," he muttered to himself. The Englishman returned to his reading, almost being sucked back into the world of heroes, dragons, and damsels in distress, when, with a jolt, he realized something; he didn't own a cat.

"Holy sh- Cat! Where did you-?" he exclaimed. The cat momentarily abandoned the squeaky toy to look up at Arthur with big, blue eyes.

"Meow!"

The cat went back to mauling the squishy burger.

"Wha- Cat, how did you get in here?"

Needless to say, the brit was ignored.

With a huff, the lean man stood and walked over to the kitten. Once he was close enough, he scooped up the feline and winced at the loud vocalization the animal made. The growl was quickly replaced by boisterous purring, though the man didn't know why. Arthur hadn't even known it was possible for the species to be loud in any way.

"Alright, now, show me how you got in."

A dopey grin and a blink of content eyes were all he got in response.

Another huff. "Look, I've been nice so far, but if you keep this dumb act up there will be no more Mr. Nice-Guy."

The cat blinked and licked its lips.

"Ugh!"

"Uh, Artie? What are ya doin' with Hero over there?" a southern accented voice questioned, laced with unhidden amusement. Arthur gasped and nearly dropped the Maine Coon, thankfully catching it in time.

"A-Alfred!"

The taller blonde chuckled and sauntered over to the smaller, carefully tugging the feline away and into his own arms. "The one and only," the American winked. A deep flush had already settled onto the Londoner's face and the man's mind was going into a panicked overdrive because _Alfred had seem him having a conversation with a cat like it was a person holy Lord Jesus Christ-!_

"Wait, what?"

"What?"

"What did you call it?"

Alfred seemed confused before realization dawned on him. "Oh, well, this little guy here's name is Hero. I named him a while ago."

Green eyes stared in restrained irritation at the man before them. "His name…is Hero."

"Yep!"

"You named him… a while ago."

"Uh, yeah?"

"_How long ago_?"

"Hmm…I don't know, five minutes? I know I gave him the Happy Meal gift burger right after," Alfred stroked his jaw with a tanned hand, as if he was thinking through the events of the day, "So yeah, about five minutes." Arthur brought his pale hands up to rub his face in exasperation. His lover was so oblivious to his surroundings it was ridiculous.

"Alfred, we don't have enough money to own a cat," he sighed, "and besides, how did he get in here, anyway?"

"Hell if I know," was the response, "but what I do know is that we can afford to feed him. Even enough to feed two of him." Arthur let out a dry bark and shook his head.

"How do you know that? We barely have enough to take care of ourselves."

"I got a promotion."

The Englishman gasped and his gaze snapped up to stare the American in the eyes. "You-you what?"

"I got a promotion. Boss told me that I was the best person he had on the team, so he gave me the new position as Business Manager for the company. I don't have to sit in a cramped little cubicle anymore." Alfred's eyes softened and a small smile was sent Arthur's way. "With the new position, I'll earn more money, a _lot _more money, and we'll definitely have enough to pay for Hero over here. So please, Artie, can we keep him? Can we?"

Arthur, too, felt his eyes soften and sighed. "Alright, we can keep him," he quickly added on, "but that does _not _mean he gets to get everything he wants. Oh, and it's _your _job to figure out how he got in in the first place."

Alfred's face exploded in joy, and suddenly Arthur was surrounded by the scent of sunshine and Axe "black chill" body spray. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you! Have I told you how much I love you yet? 'Cause I do." Sky blue eyes turned their attention to the chubby ball of fluff still lying on one of Alfred's arms. "Did you hear that, Hero? You get to stay with us! Yes, you do, yes, you do!"

Arthur laughed. His bad day was quickly turning into the best day. Now, if only he could find out how Hero got in…

**Bad ending? Yes.**

**Horribly written? Yep.**

**Completely sucked? You know it.**

**This took me about an hour for me to type up. I haven't written anything AT ALL in a year (sorry to anyone reading Once Lost, Now Found or Can't We Be Friends) so this is really bad. Tell me your thoughts in a review, alright? You feel me? Good. **

**Side Note: Has anyone ever had a hangnail and you peeled it back thinking it wouldn't cause too much damage? I did and it hurt like a bitch. Two days later and it's still bleeding…**


End file.
